Reviews

The new AppleTV+ movie directed by Sian Heder will surely hit you like a ton of bricks. It's emotional without being manipulative but rather by making us invested in the characters and their lives.

Basically the movie follows Ruby Rossi, a teenage child of deaf adults who has to take a huge responsibility in managing her family from a very young age and her coming of age and trying to have an identity of her own.

But that doesn't mean the supporting characters aren't fleshed out. They have their own agencies and they feel real which is probably why the movie works so well. The mother (Jackie) is shown to be conflicted about her daughter growing up as she doesn't want her daughter going away from them. The brother (Leo) is insecure as he feels the family favors and assigns more tasks to Ruby even though he is the older brother. He wants people to know that he can shoulder responsibility and take care of the family. Then it brings us to the father (Frank), featuring a magnificent performance from Troy Kotsur. He steals every scene he is in and his relationship with his daughter Ruby is the heart of the film.

There have been complaints that the film is standard and predictable and yes this is true. You can predict the plot points from a mile away because these kinds of movies are made a lot. But still the movie works because of hw dedicated and committed the cast and crew are. They believe in the story and characters and this makes the events happening real. We connect to the characters and are prepared to go on the journey with them. The plot points even though they've been covered a million times feels real because there is a feel of authenticity in this movie.

And Emilia Jones(who plays ruby). My god!! What a performance. The movie wouldn't work without her giving it all. She has to be authentic in multiple categories. She has to believable in catching fish, in sign language, singing and an American accent. And I haven't even talked about her acting skills because she has to be unbelievably likeable. We have to be prepared to go with her and she has to manage to be interesting for 2 hours and she does it with so much ease.

But the things I loved the most about this movie are the emotional beats. Ruby singing to her dad in the back of the truck and then the song at the audition had me bawling my eyes out. Also, it was genuinely funny with Troy Kotsur being absolutely hilarious. And I also think it's one of the very few movies which treats deaf people with kindness and takes them seriously. They are allowed to be full human beings with problems just like everybody else compared to other films where deaf person's only character trait is that he/she is deaf.

Overall, a terrific movie with some plot points which don't feel that sincere compared to the rest of the movie. It's one of those movies which I feel like everyone should watch because it makes you feel so much of empathy.

Ever loved a movie just because of how wonderful the imagery was? The Green Knight is one of those movies for me. It's just so gorgeous and you are transported right into the world created by David Lowery. But the imagery isn't the sole good thing about the movie.

The main theme the movie tackles is about the pursuit of greatness and what really constitutes greatness and is it really worth it. The movie is an adaptation of the story "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" but Sir Gawain takes opposite decisions in the movie compared to the book.

The story starts with Gawain being an irresponsible fool who has no ambition. This disappoints his mom who is a witch and she devises a plan to make him great. The whole movie can be interpreted in many ways, and all the plot points and imagery are metaphorically and we the audience have to connect the dots.

Coming to the characters, they don't really feel real as the director/writer is not interested in making them feel real. What they are interested in are the ideas and characters are written to push that idea. (Similar to Stanley Kubrick movies). Nevertheless, the performances are really good, with Dev Patel shining as he is the only one with a proper character arc. He is a terrible guy who, in the pursuit of greatness fails in being a good man.

But as I said earlier, the best part of the movie was the worldbuilding. It feels so authentic that a creature like The Green Knight feels it belongs there. It is at part gorgeous, at part terrifying and most of the time, both. There is a sense of tragedy and dread until the very end.

This is one of those movies where you have to watch it just for the experience and the themes and the ideas it explores just are an icing on the cake. There are a lot of stuff underneath the surface which demand multiple viewings. Don't go in expecting the usual Knight stuff as Gawain in the movie is like an anti-Knight.

Probably my favorite movie of the year.

The new movie from Joachim Trier starring Renate Reinsve in an absolute star making turn tells the story of Julia in 12 chapters about her indecisiveness and her lack of empathy towards others and how she overcomes this.

Renate Reinsve carries this movie as she embodies the character so well. The character Julia, is fascinating. At first glance she is likeable, incredibly charismatic and she just makes you fall in love with her. But as the movie goes on we get to know her dark side. She really cant take a strong decision which she will stick to, but rather jumps from one place to another, thereby hurting people that love her. So basically the movie is about the responsibility of growing up and having to take decisions knowing full well that these decisions affect people around you too.

But the best thing about the movie, other than Renate's performance, is the atmosphere. It's as if you are in Oslo with those characters which we can attribute to the wonderful production and directing. Add to that there ae two surreal scenes which are probably the best cinematic moments of the year. One is where the world just stops and Julia spends a day with her new lover. The scene is so beautiful and so so sad too. The other scene is when Julia takes mushroom and has a trip where we get to know her character a lot (Similar to the dream scenes in Sopranos), her fears and insecurities. The imagery in that scene is truly magnificent and scary.

But I don't think the movie is flawless. I think the director was afraid of the movie being labelled generic, that he tried too hard to subvert from it. (For example, the ironic use of narration) I thought it was unnecessary as the scenes were so genuine and so well made that it didn't matter it was explored before. I think the director should have just trusted the actors and the plot more and just made it as it is.

In the end, I do think it is one of the best movies of the year, with probably the best performance of the year (along with KStew in Spencer) by Renate. Even if you aren't a fan of Romcoms, you will enjoy this as it is a wonderful character study of someone growing up and taking responsibility of her own life.

One of the most entertaining movies ever made. I mean this movie is 3 hours long! Still it didn't feel like it all. But is entertainment alone enough to consider this among Scorsese's best and among the best of this decade? Of course not. This movie delves into our desire for making money at any cost represented by Jordan Belfort (Di Caprio) and his gang of stock brokers. We don't sense it the first time we are watching the movie as Scorsese and Di Caprio have made it so colorful and fun and we feel as if we are going on a ride along with them. This is where many of the criticisms have come as some feel that the movie glorifies the ugly way that Belfort made money. But while watching the second time (which isn't really taxing as it so much fun!!) we get to see the real ugly side of the lead character. He has sex with everyone, cheats on his wives, takes huge amounts of dr*gs and many more!! Another criticism was that the movie doesn't let the audience feel sorry for the victims of the fraud as they aren't shown at all. But that is exactly the point of Scorsese. The movie is told from Belfort's perspective. To people like him, money is everything. He doesn't care about the people who have suffered because of him as he feels they are just plain stupid. And one of my favorite moment is the ending. We have seen the life of Belfort without a filter. This was exactly what had happened with him in real life. The movie ends with Jordan being invited to give an inspirational speech to an audience. And the movie cuts from Jordan's face to the face of the audience. This was Scorsese at his best! What was the look on the faces of the audience? Was it of anger? Shame? Disgust? Nothing of that sort. It was of awe and admiration towards Jordan. The exact same reaction even we had towards him the entire length of the movie. Basically, Scorsese asks us to evaluate ourselves as an audience. We all despise the man, because of the dirty things he has done but gradually as the movie goes on, we get drawn by his charisma and how much fun he is having and we wish even we lived a life like that. I mean, you just have to visit a yt video of Jordan and you will see guys just admiring him and wishing to be like him!

But all of the darkness isn't visible while watching it due to the quirky screenplay, Scorsese's direction and the actors' performances. We just have a jolly good time watching it. And I don't think the movie would have worked without Di Caprio as the Wolf. Possibly his greatest performance, he just brings every ounce of his charisma and energy to every single scene. He basically lights up the entire movie. Jonah Hill is fantastic as his partner. The scenes shared by the two actors really were awesome. Mathew McConaughey has a couple of scenes and he is absolutely electric. Margot Robbie as Jordan's wife is okay-ish, she is definitely not one of the stronger parts of the movie as her accent was a little annoying but she is extremely hot and was good for the most part. Scorsese brought his Goodfellas kind of pacing to the movie and it just rocketed along at a fast pace. But unlike Goodfellas which had Karen Hill, this movie doesn't have that proper outsider looking inside the world that we can relate to. Margot's character just isn't strong enough to sympathize with her and her entanglement with a crooked man.

So am going to end the review by saying this is a definite watch for everyone. But warning! There are a lot of scenes of dr*gs, sex and nudity and the movie apparently has the record for using f*ck the most times! But if you can look past that it is an absolute masterpiece and will surely keep you entertained throughout the runtime.

Nolan's second movie about a man seeking revenge for the murder of his wife, truly put the director on the map as an exciting prospect for the future and he has lived up to it. Obviously, the biggest selling point of the movie was the unique storytelling in the sense that the story revealed itself backward. This allowed us to truly be in the mind of Lenard (Guy Pearce) who is an amnesiac who can't form new memories apparently since the death of his wife. We are along with him in the search of what happened in the past. In the process we see all the people taking advantage of him in his pursuit. There are a lot of things I liked in the movie. Guy Pearce is excellent embodying an amnesiac man who has absolutely no idea what is going on. The rest of the cast doesn't have a lot to do but are serviceable enough. The best thing was the editing. Even though there are two narratives, one told forward and one in reverse, you understand it clearly. Although at the start you feel confused about what's going on, you will get used to it. The flashbacks establish what happened without being distracting. The greatest strength of the movie is the ability in keeping you intrigued and interested. Due to the premise, it feels more of a puzzle that we are solving along with the main character. Even then, there are stuff which I didn't like. I think the story doesn't allow the main character to be something more than just a tool to move it forward. Nolan and Guy Pearce don't add anything to make the lead more interesting for us to care about. The side characters are forgettable as well. They don't have definitive traits to make them full rounded characters. Still, I do think it is a wonderful movie which is entertaining and tells us about revenge and violence and how it blinds people to the mistakes they are making. We distort our memory to suit us coming on the right side of things. We try to twist a fact in our favor so that we can do certain things that we want to do. Watching Nolan's older movies (i.e pre The Dark Knight/Inception) really makes me wish he does those more regularly. Following the success of The Dark Knight and Inception he has chosen to do more of his big Blockbusters with more spectacle and complex plots but falling short on character and humanistic themes. Memento is a true reminder that Nolan isn't someone who can't make good movies about humanistic themes. It is actually his funniest movie (TDK is darkly funny) and has complex relationships between characters. Highly recommend even for someone who isn't a Nolan fan. A true masterpiece and Nolan's second best film (after TDK). A 9/10

Quentin Tarantino's movie about slavery set in the mid 19th century caused quite an uproar at the time of release due to it being a genre movie. Several felt he wasn't taking the topic serious enough. Were they right? Yeah to an extent. Tarantino's favorite genre is the western/blaxploitation one and he continuously makes those kinds of movies. He loves revenge fantasies. So, he made this in those veins. Basically, it is about a slave Django (Jamie Fox) who is freed from a previous owner by Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) who is a bounty hunter and he requires Django to find a couple of men who have a bounty on their head. Then they become friends and Schultz finds out that Django's wife is kept as a slave by Calvin Candie (Di Caprio) and they try to free her. It is a basic revenge story which has the usual Tarantino dialogue and violence. It is really bloody and there were moments where I couldn't watch it. The violence isn't the gritty serious type, but rather the fun one (Because it is fun, Janet!!!!). I really enjoyed watching it. There were some really impressive set pieces and moments. The dialogue was sharp and quite funny. There were some quirky subtexts as well. The best part were the performances. Jamie Fox is great as he has the right mix of nastiness and naivety in him. Christoph Waltz plays a good guy version of Hans Landa and he is quite charming. He really has a wonderful screen presence. Di Caprio is great as well as the charming yet nasty and downright evil slave owner. But the pick of them was Sam Jackson who plays a pretty complex character as the head slave of Calvin Candie. Other than these there isn't much to like. It is, like most Tarantino movies, all style and no substance. It lacks the thematic depth of other great movies. He is a wonderfully talented guy. He uses dialogue wonderfully. Camera movements, blocking and staging are pretty great in his later movies. He obviously has everything it takes to make a thematically deep but fun movie but chooses not to. He has a trope and he has stuck on to it since the beginning and frankly it is wearing thin. Every one of his post Kill Bill movies glorifies violence. The sole intentions of him is to make cool movies and it is fine but it really frustrates me because he is better than this. But there is one pretty complex thing he made. That is the relation between Stephen (S Jackson) and Calvin Candie. It is established that Stephen was in the house before Candie was born and he had raised him. The relation is portrayed as a usual slave owner one in font of others but behind, Stephen is shown to have dominance over Candie. It was a rather interesting concept but didn't really take off. Overall, a descent fun movie with awesome performances and dialogue and some nice camera work and shots but nothing more. It isn't greater than the sum of its parts. It is filled with great scenes but doesn't add up to a make a great movie. I would give it an 8/10

Quentin Tarantino's movie about slavery set in the mid 19th century caused quite an uproar at the time of release due to it being a genre movie. Several felt he wasn't taking the topic serious enough. Were they right? Yeah to an extent. Tarantino's favorite genre is the western/blaxploitation one and he continuously makes those kinds of movies. He loves revenge fantasies. So, he made this in those veins. Basically, it is about a slave Django (Jamie Fox) who is freed from a previous owner by Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) who is a bounty hunter and he requires Django to find a couple of men who have a bounty on their head. Then they become friends and Schultz finds out that Django's wife is kept as a slave by Calvin Candie (Di Caprio) and they try to free her. It is a basic revenge story which has the usual Tarantino dialogue and violence. It is really bloody and there were moments where I couldn't watch it. The violence isn't the gritty serious type, but rather the fun one (Because it is fun, Janet!!!!). I really enjoyed watching it. There were some really impressive set pieces and moments. The dialogue was sharp and quite funny. There were some quirky subtexts as well. The best part were the performances. Jamie Fox is great as he has the right mix of nastiness and naivety in him. Christoph Waltz plays a good guy version of Hans Landa and he is quite charming. He really has a wonderful screen presence. Di Caprio is great as well as the charming yet nasty and downright evil slave owner. But the pick of them was Sam Jackson who plays a pretty complex character as the head slave of Calvin Candie. Other than these there isn't much to like. It is, like most Tarantino movies, all style and no substance. It lacks the thematic depth of other great movies. He is a wonderfully talented guy. He uses dialogue wonderfully. Camera movements, blocking and staging are pretty great in his later movies. He obviously has everything it takes to make a thematically deep but fun movie but chooses not to. He has a trope and he has stuck on to it since the beginning and frankly it is wearing thin. Every one of his post Kill Bill movies glorifies violence. The sole intentions of him is to make cool movies and it is fine but it really frustrates me because he is better than this. But there is one pretty complex thing he made. That is the relation between Stephen (S Jackson) and Calvin Candie. It is established that Stephen was in the house before Candie was born and he had raised him. The relation is portrayed as a usual slave owner one in font of others but behind, Stephen is shown to have dominance over Candie. It was a rather interesting concept but didn't really take off. Overall, a descent movie with awesome performances and dialogue and some nice camera work and shots but nothing more. It isn't greater than the sum of its parts. It is filled with great scenes but doesn't add up to make a truly great movie. I would give it an 8/10

The Departed The movie that finally got Scorsese the coveted Oscar. Featuring an all star cast including Jack Nicholson , it ultimately proved to be a little disappointing to me. That is, it doesn't really belong to the other greater works of Scorsese. The things I liked about the movie: 1) The atmosphere which really brings you into the crime world of Boston. The cinematography is excellent. 2) The performances: Mark Wahlberg turns his most impressive performance till date as the foul mouth officer(barring Boogie nights maybe) and he is given pretty funny dialogue too. Nicholson is absolutely electric and you just can't take your eyes off of him. Di Caprio and Damon too are pretty good but certainly not their best (I feel). 3) Soundtrack: Duh it's a Scorsese movie!!! 4) Fun: It was definitely a funny movie and there are dialogues where I couldn't stop laughing. Coming to things that I didn't like: 1) The characters I don't feel are fleshed out properly. They have certain traits and there is the topic of the amount of stress that an undercover cop undergoes but I don't really feel it wasn't shown enough and it was sort of lost in the humor present. Added to that the love triangle just didn't feel right to me and felt out of place. 2) Issues in storytelling: The movie just flew like anything. It is really a mess of a movie with bad pacing and poor storytelling. It worked for Wolf of Wall Street because it fit the themes and the performances of the actors but here it just was confusing. There is an implication that (SPOILERS) Jack's character is an FBI undercover but it isn't allowed any time to breathe. It has so much to say as the plot is so thick that it ultimately feels rushed and all over the place. 3) The writing isn't particularly good. It borders on amateurish at times. I mean the amount of profanities used is just too much. Yea I loved TWOWS and Goodfellas but here it just felt forced as if Scorsese was just pandering to the younger audiences. And the movie didn't really strike the right balance between darkness and humor. Take Jack's character for example. I loved it and found it entertaining but it just doesn't mesh in the movie. He is sort of living in his own world in a different movie. Also there was a lot of attempted jokes that I didn't find funny (yeah is subjective). 4) The editing: It wasn't that good! There were certain noticeable slip-ups and characters moving in and out of the frame between takes. 5) I wasn't really moved by the ending either. It was certainly surprising but just felt like Scorsese trying to act as Tarantino as possible. 6) The rat scene!!!!!!!Why Scorsese why?? I have seen theories online about the themes of potency but I just don't buy it. I think it is just a surface level film which can be enjoyed by everyone. It isn't as deep as his character study ones nor is it as well told and as much fun as TWOWS, Goodfellas or Casino. I certainly don't hate it nor do I love it. A 6.5 from me

The Master In my opinion this movie consists of the greatest acting ever. Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Quell and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd are the greatest performances of this century. That both these actors were robbed of Oscars still haunts me. Even the other performances by Amy Adams and Laura Dern are wonderful. The processing scene will go down in history as one of the greatest pieces of acting ever filmed. But is it the only good thing about the movie? Of course not.

The first time I watched the movie I didn't know what to take away from it as it doesn't provide a satisfactory conclusion. Freddie starts and ends the same way. But still it was an interesting and haunting experience. And it lingered with me for a long time. So decided to watch it again and found out that is a character driven story not a plot driven one. The relationship between Freddie and Lancaster is the heart and soul of the movie and the entire movie explores them both. Lancaster Dodd is a guy who believes man is a civilized being and isn't an animal but Freddie is the contradiction to it. Freddie does things impulsively and doesn't care about consequences. Dodd sees the freedom that Freddie has to do whatever he wants and is amazed by it. There are moments which show Lancaster isn't the same on the inside, that he too is an animal. And Amy Adams' character(wife of Lancaster) is the true master. She is the head of the cult and she takes the decisions and Lancaster is merely a puppet. She actually sees through Freddie and is able to read him(during the naked girls dancing vision of Freddie, she looks directly into him) .Still I didn't truly understand everything about her. Need to watch some more times.

Paul Anderson has told in interviews that the movie is a love story between the two main characters. And this statement made the movie even better for me. There were talks that the movie is about Scientology but I kind of disagree. Its more about cults and their nature of preying the weak for their own purposes. Also there is a lot of similarity between this and his previous movie There Will Be Blood in that Lancaster and Freddie are similar to Eli and Daniel. But Daniel and Eli hate each other whereas the other two love each other.

In terms of directing, it is top notch. The jail scene is wonderfully filmed reminiscent of Kubrick. The cinematography is excellent as well and the choice to shoot in 65mm helped a lot as it enriches the experience as well as to extract the richness of the actors' performances. There are a lot of closeup scenes which work wonderfully. The score by John Greenwood, although not as good as There will be Blood, (it is top-tier!!) it is pretty good. As I have said already the acting performances are the best ever. The movie needs to be seen at least for the acting involved.

I have watched it 4 times and the quality is just increasing every time I watch. The exploration of the psyche of the main characters is really good. There were complaints that the movie doesn't go anywhere but I think that is the point of it. Freddie doesn't go anywhere. He comes back to where he has started. Nor does Lancaster. It is similar to 2001 in that aspects as it asks us questions and allows us to think about the events that happen. So I advise to everyone to watch one of the greatest movies ever by The Greatest Modern Filmmaker.

A perfect 10!!

There will be blood is widely regarded as an all time classic and in my humble opinion it is. It's a story about greed, faith, family(or lack of),love,religion, loneliness, capitalism and its devastating effects. The movie sort of acts as a critique on capitalism and the means men will go in order to make money.

The story is mostly about two men, Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day Lewis) and Eli Sunday(Paul Dano) and the hatred filled relationship between them. They are two sides of the same coin and both of them know it. Daniel is an oil man who is extremely greedy and has lust for power and money and is prepared to go to any lengths to fulfill his wants and all of this is established in one of the greatest openings of all time with barely a word spoken. He adopts the small son of his worker that had recently died in an oil drilling accident. The scene between the baby and Daniel is also a wonderful scene and one of my favorite shots as the baby, white as snow dressed in white as well is cast by the shadow of Daniel, dressed in black and covered with oil and blood. Later Daniel mixes alcohol in the child's drink signifying the mixing of impurity in the innocent child. He adopts not of pity but because he believes people will trust him more if he has a family. He is an extremely charismatic individual who uses his power of speech to win over people. But he is also an atheist and as he says in the film, finds flaws in every person he meets. He later meets his apparent brother who has come looking for him and immediately trusts him and opens his emotional side that we had not seen previously. He he trusts him because of the blood relation or as he puts it "There is a little of me in you". That scene between the two of them is a wonderful insight into Daniel's inner soul and the cause of the greed.

On the other hand there is Eli who is a preacher of the church and he does money using religion and basically by swindling others. Daniel hates this. Here is man who is openly swindling the people with bull**** but they believe him. Eli is an opposite of Daniel in that he doesn't work hard at all. This infuriates Daniel. There is always the animosity between them that is the driving force of the movie. They both are the products of capitalism, the earn money at any cost attitude. Daniel considers him his competition and he tries to break him in any ways that he can finally ending in the wonderful finale. Another thing that I loves was the parallels in the baptisms of Daniel and later Eli. You should watch out for it. Also the scenes where Daniel discovers oil is so well directed that when he digs on and on it seems he is piercing Mother Earth and blood is gushing out, indicating another parallel between the two as both are using something beautiful and good to their own selfish needs. This is about the themes of the movie without giving away the spoilers. Coming to the technical aspects, the movie is gorgeously shot and every frame is a painting. The screenplay is one of the best ever and the music by Greenwood sets the mood of the movie throughout. The biggest positive is the performances of the entire cast especially Daniel Day Lewis who brings to life one of the greatest characters ever written and makes it to one of the greatest performances of all time. Paul Dano is also excellent as both Paul and Eli Sunday. PTA is excellent as usual. The long takes were really brilliant as the editing was top notch and increased the tension of the movie.

My final advice is try to see the movie at least twice as the characters are too deep and complex. The first time I watched it I was underwhelmed as the themes went over my head and more importantly I couldn't understand the two main characters. But after watching it 3 times, I have come around to appreciate it more and now it sits firmly on top of my favorite movies of this century so far. A must watch!!

Joker: A Different comic book movie for better or worse. Most of the time it doesn't feel like one at all. It has been hyped up after its release mostly by DC fans and teenagers as one of the greatest and deepest movies of all time which it certainly isn't. I just took it as an entertaining movie and it was. Joaquin Phoenix truly delivers a knockout performance and is certainly among his 5 greatest ever. His performance certainly felt a lot like in The Master and I think that is why he was cast.

So its basically about a guy who is a victim of the society and is preyed on by people because of his mental disorders until he snaps and becomes JOKER. It was pretty entertaining in a dark way and I didn't really feel bored at any time. But I didn't find it as deep as others think. It basically tried to cram in many social issues like Treatment on mentally ill people by us and also class struggle. But the director doesn't really come to a solid opinion on any of these nor does he raise questions on a new fresh matter. The only thing we can learn is that every person has a breaking point so we must all be nice to each other. Come on is that all he had to say? It sounds cheesy right. And coming to the technical things the cinematography and the score were really magnificent, so while watching for the first time it really blows you away along with Phoenix's performance. The writing is good for the most part but some dialogues felt ham fisted. But the thing which I hated most was the world building. It was basically on the society being so harsh to Arthur(Joker) that he can't take it anymore but the characters were all one dimensional. They just beat Arthur up because they can? Everyone was a prick to Arthur. There wasn't even a single good guy in the entire movie. Yeah it was made in order for us to sympathize with Arthur but should we really sympathize with him that much? Things could have been told subtly. There was no need for so many in your face things which was basically Todd Phillips screaming "Society is Bad" again and again. And it doesn't really tell why Arthur wants to kill people. Does he enjoy it or just for the publicity(I may be wrong as I haven't seen it in months). And comparisons with taxi driver and king of comedy doesn't help it either. Both those were made so well as it took a particular facet of our behaviour and explored it deftly and brilliantly. The only thing Joker does that is remotely close to those movies is Joaquin's performance which still aren't as good as De Niro's.

But there were things which I liked a lot too. The final 30 minutes or so looked good and was entertaining even though it didn't make a lot of sense. The music was good as well. Even Gary Glitters song felt good thematically as it is showing a disgraced character dancing to the song of a disgraced man. And also theories that Joker is basically him narrating the entire thing as his backstory redeems most of the flaws of the movie as he is just trying to make us feel sympathy towards him hence making everything up. But I don't like these kinds of movies because what point does it serve? That's why I didn't even like Usual Suspects that much even though it was well made.

So Joker is certainly a must watch as it brings something new to the superhero genre and could inspire other studios to make similar kind of movies. And it certainly is entertaining also with a brilliant performance at its centre. I personally don't think it inspires violence but I certainly feel the critics who have said it does do have a point. A 7 from me.

Memories Of Murder My Favorite Bong Joon Ho flick When I had watched Zodiac I was truly in awe as this was one of the few psycho killer mystery movies that spent more time on the people working on the case and how their obsessions act on their personal lives, than the killer himself. So after getting to know about about Bong Joon Ho I stumbled upon this movie and oh my what a movie it was!!Its basically related to the series of rape and murder cases which took place in South Korea in 1980s. It was funny, emotional, tense all while exploring the troubles faced by the cops during these murders.

So basically it is the efforts of cops of a rather dull and quiet village to track down a series of related murders in that area and the effects that case has on them. Bong wrapped so many themes and showed the obsessions of the cops to track the killer down and the measures they took to achieve it makes Zodiac look unpolished. All the characters are written well and the 3 lead cops play off each other beautifully. There were moments which were really funny, quite unexpected in this genre but that's what Bong does so well in all of his movies that he changes the tone so abruptly which a lot of the other directors fear to do. Some moments were so filled with tension that I was literally biting my fingernails off! The Screenplay was magnificent as well in balancing the humor and the serious tone of the movie. Cinematography should be applauded also as the scenes with the fields and the grass added to the story of the movie. The long tracking shots were done seamlessly. And the acting was top notch especially by Song Kang Ho who plays a lazy but somewhat talented cop who is way out of his depth in this case and also by Kim Sang Kyung who plays the younger but more experienced cop from Seoul. Anyways in terms of the technical departments there is absolutely no complaints whatsoever.

The thing which impressed me the most was how the people reacted to the inquiries made by the cops. The enquiries were shown to be hostile as the cops were more concerned with closing the case rather than catching the killer. Bong took a dig at the cop system of interrogation of the olden days and also the reason for the cops in interrogating that way. During a lot of cases we never care about how the police are struggling or how bad the situations are for them at all. And then coming to the last 30 or so minutes! Waw it was just awesome. The frustration built up and up till that moment and then bang!!Hit you right in the gut.

I haven't given you any spoilers as this is a movie not a lot have seen so I strongly suggest everyone to watch and appreciate a true masterpiece in acting, writing, cinematography and most importantly the directing. Thank you

How can a movie be so beautiful yet depressing. It almost feels like Shakesperean. One of the best shot movies ever!!Roger Deakins is awesome!And the opening train robbery!! So so beautiful.

There have been countless movies made on Jesse James and his assassination. But this movie, no scratch that, this piece of art isn't like those. It explores the relationship of Robert ford and Jesse and the reason for the titular killing. It almost feels like a romance between the two and killing being the last act of highest intimacy. Robert in his entire childhood looks upto the legend that is Jesse. He wants to be like him. But when he gets to know Jesse more he realizes he isn't this great antihero who killed the rich and looked after the poor but rather an arrogant prick ready to murder anyone who stands between him and his success. Even Jesse knows he is a bad man. That's what makes it so hauntingly beautiful. The two characters share an intimate relationship which just cannot be explained by words. Jesse has become paranoid after all his exploits and actually want to die. And he wants Robert to kill him!! And the leadup to the assassination. Cinematic perfection!!. The music just playing tragically and the sudden stop when he fires the bullet and then continues after his death, man just so frickin' awesome. And the after math of the death was so important thematically. On one side we have a daring murderous cowboy who looted people and killed women and children and on the other we have a scared individual who was just protecting his life. And who does the public recognize more? Of course Jesse James. It just gives a scathing review of the people we are and how we aren't as good as we think.

And the performances!!!!Casey Affleck just portrays Robert's fears and admiration so well, he almost steals every scene he is in, and Brad Pitt producing I think his greatest performance. Jesse James needed to be played by an electric screen presence and a huge star and Brad Pitt is both of them. Sam Rockwell does an awesome job as well(as per usual) as Robert's brother. Actually I wasn't surprised to see the relatively low ratings here on imdb as a casual viewer might view this as boring. Agreed the movies is slow paced and there are a couple of places that dragged. And that's why I loved it. We just know the ending but the slow burn of revealing the reasons for it was just so spectacular!

If you have a higher attention span I am sure you will love it. For the others who have been watching Nolan or Fincher movies you might find it boring but try to watch it!! One of the alltime great movies

Rakshit Shetty, hats off man. This was an effort and a half.. Just when we thought Kannada movie industry was on a decline, this movie as well as Lucia and Thithi,has brought hope.This movie has certainly taken inspiration from acclaimed movies such as Pulp Fiction(Tarantino in general), Scarface and most notably Rashomon. But it is not a ripoff by any means..

This movie is basically about an incident that took place during Janmastami, an Indian festival and a journalist's attempt at figuring out what exactly had happened through many witnesses. Hence the title Ulidavaru Kandanthe which translates to as seen by the rest. This movie is about how people view an incident from different perspectives. There are 5 people who tell everything they know about the incident and the plot is divided into 6 chapters. The thing I have noticed is that as the narrator changes the entire genre of the movie changes. For Democracy it was a romantic movie, for Shankar Poojary and Dinesha it is a crime movie, for Balu it is a thriller and for Shailesha it is a mother son sentiment movie. Great isn't it? And there is a theory about the main five characters compared to the pancha bhoota(Indian mythology) as well which I found fascinating. Even the songs carry a lot of meaning and contributes to the story.

The characters are not that well fleshed out as it is a plot driven movie but the cast do a commendable job especially Rakshit(again) who brings all the swagger in the world to play Richi who provides the much needed entertainment but doesn't deviate from the actual plot. Also Kishore as Munna,Tara as Rathnakka and Achyuta Rao as Balu are outstanding. Also Rakshit's decision to give a glimpse of the culture of coastal Karnataka was a masterstroke as the cinematography was magnificent.

The only thing which I didn't like in the movie is the editing and the love story which proves a little distracting and puts a small scratch on an otherwise flawless masterpiece. I highly recommend each and everyone to watch the best Kannada(maybe Indian) movie of all time!!!

Yeah Tim Burton's Batman movies were good and begins was really good but still we were still waiting for the movie which neutralizes Batman and Robin. And boy did we get one!! Easily THE best superhero movie of all time.Its gonna take some effort to beat it. It is one of those movies which elavates the genre and changed superhero movies (and Blockbuster movies ) forever . The battle between good and evil , order and chaos , democracy and anarchy make this movie stand out from other superhero movies. And obviously the MVP of the movie was Heath ledger in a monstrous performance as the joker. The acting by the rest of the cast was great as well(especially Bale and Oldman and Ekhart). The pacing of the movie is really fast which doesn't make you feel the 2 and half hour runtime , the soundtrack is tremendous common to Hans Zimmer movies and the cinematography by Wally pfister just makes the movie more epic. The couple of things that I didn't like about the movie were a)fight scenes---It is not as bad as some people say, but still it is not great especially after we saw Ben affleck kicking bad guys asses in bvs. b)Rachel dawes---The problem with Nolan is that he doesn't spend time for character development rather tries to forward the plot more.Hence characters like Rachel suffers as her romance between bruce or Harvey isn't fleshed out but she is just there to get blown and make both of them sad(and yes...Maggie is way better than Katie Holmes) It may be slightly overrated here I'm imdb(surely it isn't the 4th greatest movie of all time) and there are some cringy dialogues and underdeveloped characters but these things don't really stop you from enjoying a brilliant, visually stunning , dark , moving and unsettling masterpiece which you should definitely give a chance. A 9.5/10 from me...